The
Lottery Fraud. How could
you win - you never bought a ticket!Be warned, they promise millions but you could lose everything. Further down this page there is a sizeable list of the names and titles attached to some of the criminally motivated junk mail you may have received. Use your browser's search facility (Ctrl+F in Explorer
and FireFox) to find a name of interest. Well done, you were right to be suspicious!!

July '05
update. Warning:
World Lottery Benefit organization, worldslotto.org and
paymentcenter.us . These domains are being used
in "lottery" fraud attempts. Both domains have as a registrant "Solomon
Ishola, 1, manor field estate, manor field road, Dublin 15, 00353, Ireland",
isholabng@yahoo.com .

June '05 update.
The fraud criminals have vastly increased the
volume of junk mail in which they pose as agents of the UK National Lottery.
A typical example: BRIAN HUNT, Contact Officer: MICHEAL OLIVER , UK
Lottery Verification Department, Institution: Camelot Group (UK) Inc.,
Email: csucamelot@winning.com .
(NOTE. The UK National Lottery can only be played by those who pay
to enter it at licensed terminals in the UK. If someone e-mails you to tell
you about winning, they actually want to steal your money by telling you to
send them"legal" or "courier" fees before you get your "winnings".)
UK lottery scams follow, worldwide lottery scam examples further down the
page.

Also : The Honda Car Lottery and many other examples (see below). So far as the writer
knows, it would be illegal for foreign lottery companies to operate in the
USA. Our American visitors can therefore act as outlined below when they
receive mail telling them they have won a foreign lottery. Complain to the
criminal's mail service provider and get those accounts closed!

Look out for congratulations on winning
the "EURO-AFRO SWEEPSTAKE LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMS" (and many others,
see below). They might say that you have won 2 million dollars or euros. The
money would be released when you forward your bank details along with
current address and telephone number. They will say something like "Remember
to keep this information top secret from the public notice until all claims
have been processed". They actually mean to say that they don't want you to
mention their approach to the writer or the police!

If you were tempted to reply to such mail, you would soon be asked to pay a
"processing fee" of several thousand euros or the equivalent in dollars. If
you are based in Europe, you might be invited to hand over the money in
Amsterdam or pay via an untraceable Western Union or MoneyGram service. Your
money would be lost, but you would be sure to receive further tempting
offers in the future! NB If you tell them you cannot send the fee they
require, they might send you a cheque for a larger sum so that you can bank
this and then pay them the "handling fee". Given time, you will find that
their "cheque" is worthless. They know that it will be a while before your
bank gives you the bad news, and they rely on you sending them money before
you know the awful truth. TIP: When in doubt, ask your bank for "express
clearance" of a cheque. Never send money via Western Union to
a person you do not know well.

, Warning: an
example of a fake bank on the Web - " Investment and Finance Banking
Corporation ". A recent trend in the lottery fraud involves
directing the potential victim to a "bank" website where he will be invited
to open an account. He will need to make a deposit and this will clear the
way for releasing the "millions" he has won in a non-existent lottery. One
such fake bank is "Investment and
Finance Banking Corporation" which gives its address as Imperial
Building, 104 Vicarage Road, London, E10 5EQ, UK. However, a Whois search on
the ifbcplc.com domain name reveals the
registrant to be Signonafrica Inc, 165, Awolowo Way, Ikeja 23401, Nigeria,
administrative contact: Okafor,
Godwin
godwin@signonafrica.com . The website
appears to be hosted by SIGNON-HOST.NET and the administrative
contact there is given as Okafor, Godwin
godwin@signonafrica.com, 5075
Nighthawk Way, Oceanside, California 92056, United States 7607267001.

Never let these people have your bank account and personal contact details. Do not send copies of your passport and signature etc. As well as trying to fool you into paying an advance fee, they will use your personal information
in other fraud crimes. If
this warning comes too late and you have given out banking details,
please discuss the implications with your bank manager as soon as possible.
You will need to have your account number changed at the very least.

What can you do to make life difficult for the criminals? It would be good to get their e-mail accounts suspended.
They use free, anonymous e-mail accounts and ISPs need to know when their
services are being abused by criminals. Just take a look at the "reply to" address within the scam mail. This would be something like
agentgarysmith@netscape.net (from a 419
lottery fraud mail of Nov. '04). Forward the junk to the service provider using the address abuse@netscape.net (for this example).
It is important to forward e-mail headers with the junk mail so that the ISP
can investigate fully. In the subject line write "criminal abuse",
add the offending address and ask the service provider to immediately suspend the abuser's mail account. The
criminals will typically send mail from a different anonymous account so
inspect the headers and copy your complaint to abuse@ the ISP in the
"sender" address.
On the subject of ISPs, I believe that those who do not shut down these
accounts, once they have been made aware of criminal activity, share in the
guilt. Readers should be aware of zwallet.com, an ISP registered in the Phillipines and which seems to extend mail services to many criminals.
MSN.com, Hotmail.com,
Netscape
and Yahoo
accounts are also favoured by them at the moment.This is what we want to see (recent mail from an efficient Czech ISP) "Hello, user mohammed.abacha was blocked. Thank You for Your announcement. Best Regards, Ondrej Lolek, Helpdesk". Australian ISPs also seem helpful and efficient in responding to the menace.

There follow some of the
false names and titles used by fraud criminals in recent times. Beware of mail supposedly
from, or inviting you to place your trust in:

N.B. If you need to send me suspicious mail for
examination, please be sure to forward it complete with its Internet headers.
If you are not sure how to do this, check the help file of your mail software
or visit
www.haltabuse.org/help/headers/ for instructions on revealing headers in
e-mail. Please do not forward the forged documents that accompany these
scams unless by request.